Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen was born around 1622 in Gelnhausen, in present-day Hesse, to an old impoverished noble family. While still a child, he was caught up in the war ravaging the Empire; a soldier in the imperial armies, he became a clerk in a regimental chancellery. Once peace came, he became a Catholic, administered the estates of the Schauenburgs, kept an inn, then became schultheiss of Renchen, near Strasbourg, where he died in 1676. He published almost everything under anagrams of his name, and his identity as author was only established in the nineteenth century.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelThe Adventures of Simplicius SimplicissimusDer abenteuerliche SimplicissimusHans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen · 1668LiteraturePublic domain